Birds of Chicago

7:30 & 9:00 P.M.

The MAGIC STICK

Birds of Chicago have been riding a swell of good mojo in the Americana scene since their inception in late 2012. With their new album, Love in Wartime, they are set to both confirm that roots world buzz, and break on through to a much wider audience. Built around the chemistry and fire between Allison Russell and JT Nero, and their rock-steady band, BOC tours hard. Russell and Nero played with different bands in the mid-aughts (Po’ Girl and JT and the Clouds) before finding their way to each other. Nero, who writes the bulk of the songs, found himself a transcendent vocal muse in Russell (a powerful writer herself) and the band honed its chops on the road, playing 200 shows a year between 2013-17. Birds’ shows attract a mix of indy rockers, jam-kids and Americana/roots lovers, mixing moments of hushed attention with wild, rock and soul abandon.

Birds of Chicago

Cris Jacobs

9:00 p.m.

Detroit Shipping Company

Whether alone with just the guitar and his voice or surrounded by a full band, Cris Jacobs enchants listeners with his inspired, poignant songwriting, virtuous guitar playing, and soulfully transcendent voice. Artists across the board have discovered Jacobs’ musicianship and supple versatility, resulting in an impressive variety of formats in which he has played over the last few years. After a decade, five records, and 200 shows a year as principal songwriter and frontman for beloved Baltimore-based band The Bridge from 2001-2011, Jacobs wasted no time continuing to write music of his own and exploring different configurations for his craft. He released his debut solo album, Songs for Cats and Dogs, in 2012, and continued to perform relentlessly, both with his new band and as a solo artist. In doing so, he quickly garnered the admiration of a variety of predecessors and peers: rock legend Steve Winwood saw Jacobs perform in 2014 and soon invited him to open his national tour. The following year, Sturgill Simpson extended the same invitation. Never limited by genre, Jacobs and New Orleans heavyweight Ivan Neville recorded a collaborative album under the band name “Neville Jacobs”, which will be released in 2017. As an adapting, evolving, versatile musician who has survived on his own merit, Jacobs continues to win over audiences of many tastes, as he brings his characteristic authenticity and soul to every set.

Cris Jacobs

Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings

4:00 p.m.

Detroit Public Library - Friend’s Auditorium

Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings (DCWS) is a nationally recognized ensemble that engages Detroit area audiences and enriches our region through exceptional and innovative performances of chamber music with unique repertoire and venues. DCWS will perform excerpts from Handel’s Messiah with the choir from Kirk in the Hills for Noel Night.

Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings

FRANK MOKA

9:30 p.m.

THE MAX M. & MARJORIE S. FISHER MUSIC CENTER | THE Cube

Frank Moka’s “Dos Negros”, takes the audience on a musical odyssey making stops in Africa, Cuba, Brazil, Jamaica and America. Influenced by Fela Kuti, Quincy Jones, Bob Marley and the thumping sounds of hip-hop pioneers such as, UGK and OutKast, listeners should be prepared to vibrate higher on a soulful ride.

Frank Moka

Kuinka

7:00 & 9:00 p.m.

The Garden Theater

Described by NPR Music as joyous folk pop, Kuinka "laces modern folk and Americana with an electronic jolt, waltzing along the grooved edges of dream-pop, synth-pop, and Brooklyn’s mid-aughts guitar-rock revival" (Vanyaland). Their genre-defying music features several different lead singers, four-part harmony, and eclectic instrumentation including cello, banjo, synthesizers, ukulele and electronic percussion. For all of their sonic experimentation, the Seattle quartet's songs and live shows are linked by an infectious energy that remains present in everything they do. Their new EP Stay Up Late is available now on Spotify, iTunes, and at www.kuinkatheband.com. Kuinka is: Nathan Hamer // ukulele, vocals + mandolin; Miranda Zickler // vocals, synthesizer, banjo, rhythm guitar + percussion; Jillian Walker // cello, vocals + percussion; and Zach Hamer // lead guitar, percussion, vocals + harmonica.

Kuinka

Lily and Madeleine

1:30 & 3:30 p.m.

Detroit Institute of Arts | Lecture Hall

Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz's Keep It Together is a beautiful third studio album from the young Indianapolis sisters.

Madeleine:Keep It Together is our third full length album and it’s a bit of a departure from our last two records. We arranged all the songs with our friends Kate Siefker (drums, percussion, synth, bass) and Shannon Hayden (cello, guitar, mandolin, synth). Working with a closer knit team of just four ladies helped tighten our sound and unify each track into a complete collection…Lily and I wrote many of the songs separately and came together to revise/finish them. I hope listeners are able to see our unique personalities through our different lyrical themes. “Keep it together” is a lyric from the first track “Not Gonna,” which Lily wrote. This simple phrase has a lot of meaning to us: keep your shit together, keep our relationship as sisters together, pressure to keep our image a certain way as young ladies.

Lily: Keep It Together is the most personal body of work that Madeleine and I have created. It feels especially vulnerable to me because I was a lot more involved in the writing process for this album. Each song represents a moment in time that is either a past memory or an event that I could experience in the future: these songs feel just like little parts of me…Along with reflecting on the personal bonds that Madeleine and I both have, I also really wanted to focus more on the bigger picture and write about the experience of being a white woman in America and a college age kid in the 21st century.

Lily and Madeleine

Luke Winslow-King

1:00 & 4:00 p.m.

Detroit Institute of Arts | Rivera Court

New Orleans 2015 Blues Artist of the Year, Luke Winslow-King is a guitarist, singer, composer, and lyricist known for his slide guitar work, and interest in pre-war blues and traditional jazz. Winslow-King’s work consists of an eclectic mix, taking in delta-folk music, classical composition, ragtime, and rock and roll; juxtaposing original songs with those from a bygone era.

Whether solo, or with a band, Winslow-King offers an original sound that is both rustic and elegant. He delivers energetic and dynamic performances, with his burgundy voice and versatile guitar playing. Following his critically acclaimed Bloodshot Records debut The Coming Tide in 2013, LWK has been as hardworking a musician as they come. Subsequent tours in the United States and overseas landed his band in front of larger audiences while sharing the stage with the likes of Jack White, Pokey Lafarge, Taj Mahal, Chris Thile, and Rebirth Brass Band. Winslow-King’s second release for Bloodshot in as many years, Everlasting Arms finds inspiration in the developmental experiences of life and has LWK & Co. building upon previous creative efforts with a wider scope, exploring a sonically and stylistically panoramic songwriting vision.

Luke Winslow-King

MONOPHONICS

9:00 p.m.

Motor City Brewing Works Warehouse

Monophonics are just hitting their stride as one of the premier soul bands in the country. The Bay Area band delivers cinematic songs with timeless hooks anchored by Kelly Finnigan’s soulful organ and powerhouse vocals. Their sound is inspired equally by classic soul, heavy funk, psychedelic rock, and classic American songwriting.

The band’s main members live just North of San Francisco, CA in Marin county, a place revered among artists, surfers, hippies and musicians; three of them grew up here. The band members simultaneously revere and honor the Bay Area’s colorblind and highly diverse musical tradition that dates back to Haight/Ashbury’s psychedelic revolution and Sly Stone and the Family Stone’s multiracial, funky grab-bag. Soulful vocals, funky drum-breaks, psychedelic guitar licks and fuzz bass intermingle effortlessly across the band’s catalogue, most effortlessly on their newest EP: “Mirrors”.

Monophonics

Olivia Millerschin

7:00 p.m.

The Scarab Club

With a celestial voice and lyrics only an old soul can write, singer/songwriter 22 year-old Olivia Millerschin is racking up the accolades. Most recently, Olivia’s blend of vintage folk and modern pop earned her a second John Lennon Songwriting Award and the opportunity to showcase her music with a mainstage performance at NAMM 2018. She was a quarter finalist on America’s Got Talent, won the Great American Song Contest, is featured on Republic Records soundtrack to Mitch Albom’s latest novel alongside musical greats Ingrid Michaelson and Tony Bennett, and has music placed in national and international film and TV. Her achievements extend nationally as she was selected to perform at Milwaukee’s Summerfest, and has been a finalist in both the LA Music Critics Awards and The Detroit Music Awards. Her voice will also be heard in the 2018 Olympic Free Dance Program of US Pairs skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

Olivia Millerschin

Rev. Sekou

3:30 p.m.

C.H. Wright Museum of African American History GM Theater

Noted activist, theologian, author, documentary filmmaker, and musician, Reverend Osagyefo Sekou was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in the rural Arkansas Delta. Rev. Sekou's music is an unique combination of North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas Delta Blues, Memphis Soul and Pentecostal steel guitar. In May 2017, he released "In Times Like These” produced the six-time Grammy nominated North Mississippi Allstars. AFROPUNK heralded the ”deep bone-marrow-level conviction” of his first album, “The Revolution Has Come.” The single, “We Comin'”-- was named the new anthem for the modern Civil Rights movement by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A consummate entertainer, Paste Studio celebrated his barn-burning performance saying: "Rev. Sekou delivers the spiritual performance we need now."

Rev. Sekou | Photography courtesy of Heather Wilson

Cass Corridor Commons | Sanctuary

Crowned “Detroit’s Queen of the Blues” in 2015, Thornetta Davis, a multi-talented international singer/songwriter from Detroit, ia the winner of over 30 Detroit music awards. She first gained attention in 1987 when she became back up singer for the Detroit soul band “Lamont Zodiac and The Love Signs.” Shortly after, the lead singer left the band and the name changed to “The Chisel Brothers featuring Thornetta Davis." In 1996, Thornetta recorded her first solo album “Sunday Morning Music” on the Seattle based label “Sub Pop” which received a rave revue in the national Entertainment Weekly magazine. Her song “Cry” from that album was featured on the HBO hit “The Sopranos”. Thornetta has opened for legendary blues and R&B greats such as Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Etta James, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks, Johnnie Johnson and many more…her history is extensive and her performances are memorable... and Noel Night would not be the same without her.